Creators Describe Xbox 360's Infinite Undiscovery

Infinite Undiscovery, a new role playing game for the Xbox 360, was announced by Microsoft Corp. just before the Tokyo Game Show. Beyond some screenshots and a brief trailer, not much has been disclosed about the action role-playing game. We sat down off the Game Show floor with Square Enix Producer Hajime Kojima and TriAce Director Hiroshi Ogawa, who was also the main planner for Star Ocean 3, to find out more.

The game has attracted attention not just for the team developing it but also for its unusual name. What exactly does "undiscovery" mean?

"Undiscovery is a word that we created," said Kojima. "It has its roots in discovery and the fun of finding things. One of the main areas of the game is hidden things that you uncover as you play so it's a combination of the two."

"Part of the view in the game is that the moon has a special power that it gives to people," said Ogawa. "I can't go into too much detail now but basically a villain tries to harness that power away and therefore the people lose that power and light from the moon. The basic control functions and style of battle are similar to Star Ocean 3. We've also incorporated new battle and game system elements so there are situation battles and real-time battles as well. And basically you move seamlessly between the types of battle."

Kojima continued, "But unlike Star Ocean 3, where you have battles with enemies based on contact with them, the battlefield is seamless in Infinite Undiscovery so you move straight from real world into battle. And in field battle there are situational things that occur like ogres attacking from the side and tsunami occurring. In that area it has similar elements to Star Ocean 3."

But enough about how to play. The trailers talk about power being taken away from the moon, so what's the basic story of the game and who are the main characters?

"The moon is very central to the plot and the moon gives power to the people," Kojima said. "There's a villain and he enchains the moon to draw its power away and there's a hero in the world who attempts to free the world by cutting those chains. But they are not the main characters. The main character is named Capel and he looks identical to the hero so he gets wrapped up in this story. Of course, it's not just that his face is the same. He has lots of other secrets but I'd like to keep those to myself for now."

"The heroine is called Aya and she fights alongside the hero. She also mistakes Capel for being the hero. There's much more to it than that. They get tied up with the hero and end up fighting for the same cause. He starts off as a wandering minstrel but for some reason he has natural abilities with a sword. How he comes to discover that what abilities he does have ties in with the ending so we can't go into that," said Kojima.